preview from Saturday’s wedding at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center -
happy kiss
before guests arrive
wedding bliss
Monthly Archives: August 2009
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Wedding | Willits California | Camp and Sons
August 29, 2009 – 8:51 am
Love In The Mountain Air
Sometimes a wedding day is about the wedding. Sometimes it’s about the couple. And sometimes a wedding day, or in this case a wedding weekend, offers an accurate reflection of the couple and functions as a form of personal expression. Imbuing a milestone celebration with your own personalities does make for an extraordinary and memorable event.
E. and J. care deeply for each other and their friends and families. They dream of a better and more just world, and have dedicated their lives to reflect that. Last Saturday, E. and J., subverting a few of the typical traditions to their own purpose, were married in Willits, California.
E. and J. were committed to making their low-impact wedding conscientious of sustainability and preserving the environment. The camping wedding was at Camp and Sons, a 400 acre camp on Foster Mountain. Guests gathered under a grove of trees for an outdoor ceremony. A friend from law school officiated with a relevant and poignant service [I love the double lawyer weddings, where the legal implications of a civil marriage is explored and celebrated!].
Natural classics that suited them were in the details; Ball jars brimming with good beer, picnic tables lined with burlap, simple glass bottles stocked with dried flower arrangements, paper lanterns as overhead accents, and a curving wall of hay enclosing the dance floor. E. even wore a green wedding dress.
The brilliant light of the sun slipped lower and lower until sunset, when the campground grew dark. It was ice cream and fruit pies for dessert. E. and J. barely stopped dancing while they tasted it. Hands clasped, heels of new Frye boots kicked in laughter, they whirled to the music.
Leading the way in sustainable celebrations? It appears so. New beginnings are a very good place to start.
One of
A bridesmaid’s fiance deftly handled the make up on the wedding day.
A little diptych of the bride’s green dress and the grooms cuff-links.
The Sister-of-the-Bride gracefully buckles the bride’s shoes.
Seeing each other for the first time in the orchard at Camp and Sons.
Overlooking the mountain, taking a brief respite from the sun under the parasol.
Dappled light. Lovely.
A kiss under the kiwi arbor.
A tent from the weekend camping wedding, reflected in the pond.
Beautiful secular ceremony under the canopy of trees.
Flowegirl, perhaps a bit rambunctious, gives her hands a break.
The gorgeous bouquet, at rest, in the moments after the ceremony.
Dancing as the sun went down, in their new Frye boots.
The bride and groom barely take a break from dancing for their dessert – fruit pies a la mode.
Road Trip | Vermont
August 27, 2009 – 9:30 am
With summer wedding season in full swing, and maintaining a deliriously exhausting bi-coastal business, it’s been a while since Trent and Sadie and I had any length of pack tie. We relived our cross country road trip experience a few weeks ago, when we drove up to Northfield, Vermont to attend a wedding celebration. That’s right, I didn’t take my camera out at all except to take a few landscapes.
We cooled off my jumping in Sunset Lake in Brookfield. Lake swimming – the perfect way to handle August.
album | engagements
August 26, 2009 – 9:33 am
I’ve been experimenting with taking album creation in house. Still working out a few kinks in the process, but having a wonderful time getting away from the screen and back to the workbench. This is a small panorama album that features full page spreads from a few of my favorite engagement sessions from the past year.
This album is a horizontal 4×12″, and the open spreads showcase a full-frame 8×12.
sneak peek – E. & J. | Wedding | Willits California
August 25, 2009 – 7:02 am
One preview image from Saturday’s mountain wedding in California.
Congratulations!
Wedding | Danville California | Private Residence
August 13, 2009 – 7:42 pm
As I was explaining to the solid and stoic East Bay wedding photographer Brian Ng, who photographed with me last Saturday, as we were heading to Kelley and Joe’s wedding in Danville – I try to find the mood between romantic and irreverent, between quirky and lyrical – somewhere in the space that mischief and delight live. And Kelley and Joe’s wedding dwelt there. Saturday gave them a gorgeous afternoon that lingered into evening, sunlight beaming through the treetops, love and laughter. Alongside the elegant jazz trio and glasses of port there were It’s It Ice Cream Sandwiches and a precisely perfect wooden cake-topper that Joe painted himself [see comment below]. Another personalization were the miniature chalkboard place settings – perfect since Kelley is a teacher.
The bride wore a custom tea length wedding dress, birdcage veil and hand dyed Kate Spade kitten heels. Joe wore a classic brown pin striped suit, which he told me a ‘fashion guy’ had picked out.
Arranged a ‘dinner theatre’ as the bride called it – the chairs along the two long banquet tables were positioned toward one end of the clearing allowing the guests to be seated at their places during the ceremony. They chose minister Irene Kane to officiate – she was a referral from Liz and Steve’s Presidio wedding last summer. As Kelley and Joe said their vows to each other I saw Kelley’s brothers each reach over and drifted their hand over to clapse the hand of their wives. Joe’s brothers-in-law doing the same thing. Two families full of love!
Some more favorites from their joyful wedding:
The custom ivory wedding dress, and the custom dyed kelly green kitten heels.
Kelley’s future mother-in-law did the ‘do, while her nephew looked on skeptically.
The veil descends.
I love this shot of Joe, mopping his brow and looking at Kelley, before the guests arrive.
Joe gets pinned.
One of two long tables where the guests sat for the ceremony and the dinner reception which immediately followed.
Hand-made miniature chalkboard place cards.
The glee of the recessional.
It’s-It – A SF Tradition since 1928. It says so on the wrapper.
for the uninitiated that would be an ice cream sandwich made with oatmeal cookies that’s entirely dipped in chocolate. Yum.
First dance.
Joe’s handiwork – the custom Kelley and Joe cake toppers he carved and painted.
Iphone games held more interest for some.
Thanks Xenia and Kelley of BashDesign Event Planning for heading the wonderful team of vendors that made this a delightful day!
Catering: Glass Onion
Officiant: Irene Kane
Make-up: Chris Scott
Music: Nova Jazz
Cupcakes: Icing on the Cake
sneak peek – Kelley & Joe | wedding | Danville California
August 10, 2009 – 8:47 am
A quick teaser image before I catch the plane home from Oakland. Wonderful back yard wedding, the afternoon was amazing.
canopy of trees
form a sunlit silhouette
pause before the kiss
ShootStyle | Boston
August 7, 2009 – 8:21 am
Boston wedding photographer Earl Christie invited me to join ShootStyle last weekend for a Boston shoot. It’s been cool to begin to shoot more on the east coast – seeing through my lens neighborhoods that I’ve seen my entire life.
[slideshow id=2]Portrait | Molly the Molecule | Walden Pond Redux
August 7, 2009 – 8:06 am
Molly is a year older and still an amazing subject. Once again I was able to spend an afternoon with Molly and her mom at one of their favorite summertime haunts, Walden Pond. It was so hot this week, as my New England readers can attest, that diving into the water after a sticky car ride on route 2 offered a revitalizing and memorable relief.
Though we’ve been spending more time together, Molly eyes me with a bit of skepticsm.
A little square format love.
Engagement | Boston | Georges & Patrick
August 6, 2009 – 3:40 pm
As promised, a few more images from the Sunday afternoon engagement portrait session with Georges and Patrick. We had a great time walking through their South End neighborhood with the adorable fur-babies Simon and Sushi and ended the afternoon in the Boston Common.
